Sweet Noodle Pudding with Thai Kitchen Stir-Fry Noodles

What do you do when you're given a box of rice noodles? Make rice (noodle) pudding obviously...ok maybe that isn't the first thing that comes to mind, but it's something you should consider.

When I was asked to participate in the Thai Kitchen Purple Corn & Rice Stir-Fry Noodle recipe challenge, I jumped on the chance. I have a thing for Asian food - a glance at my homepage will tell you that it's one of the things I blog about the most. The thing I love most about Asian food is the complexity of flavors. Every bite is like a taste sensation for your mouth.

My challenge was to recreate a Sweet Noodle Pudding recipe from Renegade Kitchen, which in essence was something of a kugel. I have to say that I initially thought a rice noodle pudding was a wonky idea and wouldn't taste good. I LOVE rice pudding and I think it's perfect in its simplicity, but I was willing to have an open mind and give the noodle thing a try.

I always look at recipes and think about how I can make them my own and give them a twist, so I tinkered with the original recipe a bit to do just that. I thought about one of my favorite Thai desserts which is Coconut Sticky Rice with Mango. When done right, it's amazing. I borrowed some inspiration from that dish and thought adding mango would be perfect for the Sweet Noodle Pudding to add texture. Instead of just doing a plain mango, mr. misterbelly had the suggestion of making a relish which I thought was a great idea. Unfortunately my mango plan went out the window when I went to the store as mango is not exactly in season this time of year. My backup was pineapple which served as a good substitution and actually turned out better because of its natural tartness.

When preparing the recipe at home I opted to use half as many noodles and a lot less milk. I added in a little rum from my stash of Havana Club since coconut and rum are best friends. I omitted the raisins completely because they have no place in rice pudding IMO. I'm a purist, what can I say?

The relish was simple, just a bit of lime juice, some diced chillis, a little mint and pineapple and you're good to go.

After making the noodles and milk mixture separately, I combined both in a dish and put it into the fridge for 2 hours to firm up. What emerged was a noodly (totally made that word up) pudding that tasted pretty good. The texture of noodles for dessert was a little strange for me, but the overall flavor was quite good. The tang and heat from the relish was the perfect addition to add a little texture and a burst of flavor.

Overall it was pretty successful as a dish. The noodles are very mild in flavor and would lend themselves well to almost any dish. I actually really want to try the Cold Thai Noodle Salad recipe on the back fo the box next. Glad I saved some noodles! Want to try the noodles for yourself? Click HERE to enter to win a prize pack of noodle goodness from Thai Kitchen.

What dessert do you think would go well with the Thai Kitchen Stir-Fry noodles?

In a large saucepan, add the milk, coconut milk, sugar, rum, vanilla and salt. Whisk everything together over medium heat and bring to a simmer for about 20 minutes, until reduced by about half

In a separate pot of boiling water, prepare noodles according to package directions. When cooked, drain and rinse with cold water. If you're not using the noodles right away you should put them in a bowl of cold water so they don't stick together (pictured above).

When the coconut milk mixture is done, combine the noodles and milk mixture in a bowl. Give it a stir and pop it into the fridge for 1-2 hours. When ready to serve, simply garnish with your pineapple relish.